Is that a train? No, it's just a man whistling

While working on the railroad for 10 years, Ellwood Haynam perfected a peculiar skill. He can imitate a steam engine train whistle.

Saimi Bergmann

While working on the railroad for 10 years, Ellwood Haynam perfected a peculiar skill. He can imitate a steam engine train whistle.

The Canton Township resident doesn’t just come close. He fools people, which he enjoys.

“We were on a bus tour, and the driver pulled up to the train crossing and stopped like they do,” Haynam said with such a mischievous twinkle that you know what’s coming next.

“He opens the door and looks, and just as he’s about to go, I do my thing. He stops and looks again. He starts to go, and I did it again. He’s like, ‘Where is that darn train?’ ”

Haynam worked in Minerva for New York Central from 1945 to 1955.

“Then the diesels came in, and we all lost our jobs,” he said.

Haynam was a bricklayer for 50 years, but he still looks back to his time in the yards as a highlight in his life.

“I sure miss it, you better believe it,” he said. “Oh, working there, we got so dirty and greasy. But I was very proud of it.”

Haynam wore one of his striped engineer’s caps (“This is the real thing right here!”) to a casting call in downtown Canton on Wednesday for the Denzel Washington film “Unstoppable.” Movie producers were looking for men who looked like they worked in a rail yard, so he thought he’d apply.

His wife, Janice Haynam, said her husband’s distinctive whistle can be heard over long distances.

“That’s how he finds me,” she said. “Like when we’re in the Wal-Mart, he blows, and I know that means it’s time to go.”

Haynam’s talent got him on stage when the couple went on a cruise. They were at a shipboard talent show, and three passengers started singing, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

One of the stewards rushed into the audience with a microphone and asked Haynam to do the train whistle.

“The singers were so surprised they stopped singing,” he said. “Then they took me on stage to perform with them.”

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